Witness Dagmar Havlova: the purity of the Antarctic
It is exactly 75 years since the first Czech set foot on the Antarctic. His name was Vaclav Vojtech, and he travelled with an expedition organized by the American Richard Byrd. Vojtech returned a national hero. To this day there is a Czech presence on the White Continent, with a research station on Nelson Island in the South Shetlands; later this year a new Czech polar station is to be shipped to James Ross Island in the same area. One person who has become obsessed with the Antarctic is Dagmar Havlova, the one-time dissident and sister-in-law of the former Czech President Vaclav Havel. She was one of the initiators of the station on Nelson Island, and this year is planning her fifth visit. Here she talks about what draws her back to the Antarctic again and again.
Vaclav Vojtech
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